Kuwait: More than 42 million old vehicle tires dumped in Kuwait’s sand have begun to be recycled, as the Gulf state tackles a waste problem that has created one of the world’s largest tire graveyards.
The huge dump site was a mere 7 km (4 mi) away from a residential suburb. Poisonous black smoke was coming out of the fierce fire from time to time, due to which the residents were upset.
But this month Kuwait, which wants to build 25,000 new homes on the site, ended up moving all the tires to a new one. al salmi, near the Saudi border, where recycling efforts have begun.
in a plant operated by epsco Global General Trading Recycling Company, employees sort and cut scrap tires before pressing the particles into rubber colored floor tiles.
“The factory is helping the society by cleaning the dumped old tires and converting them into consumer products,” said Ala Hassan, Partner and CEO, EPSCO. They also export products to neighboring Gulf countries and Asia, he added.
The company said the EPSCO plant, which started operations in January 2021, can recycle 3 million tires a year.
Scrap tires are a major environmental problem around the world because of their bulk and the chemicals they can release.
oil-rich Kuwait, a OPEC The member with a population of about 4.5 million had about 2.4 million vehicles in 2019, central statistics bureau The data shows, up from 1.5 million in 2010.
The government expects Al-Salmi to become a tire recycling hub, with plans for more factories.
NS Al Khair Group Its CEO Hammoud al-Maari said that more than half the tires a day are transported to the new site using 500 trucks and is planning to open a factory to burn the tires through a process called pyrolysis.
Pyrolysis produces a type of oil that can be sold for use in industrial furnaces such as cement factories, and an ash known as carbon black that can be used in a variety of industries.
The huge dump site was a mere 7 km (4 mi) away from a residential suburb. Poisonous black smoke was coming out of the fierce fire from time to time, due to which the residents were upset.
But this month Kuwait, which wants to build 25,000 new homes on the site, ended up moving all the tires to a new one. al salmi, near the Saudi border, where recycling efforts have begun.
in a plant operated by epsco Global General Trading Recycling Company, employees sort and cut scrap tires before pressing the particles into rubber colored floor tiles.
“The factory is helping the society by cleaning the dumped old tires and converting them into consumer products,” said Ala Hassan, Partner and CEO, EPSCO. They also export products to neighboring Gulf countries and Asia, he added.
The company said the EPSCO plant, which started operations in January 2021, can recycle 3 million tires a year.
Scrap tires are a major environmental problem around the world because of their bulk and the chemicals they can release.
oil-rich Kuwait, a OPEC The member with a population of about 4.5 million had about 2.4 million vehicles in 2019, central statistics bureau The data shows, up from 1.5 million in 2010.
The government expects Al-Salmi to become a tire recycling hub, with plans for more factories.
NS Al Khair Group Its CEO Hammoud al-Maari said that more than half the tires a day are transported to the new site using 500 trucks and is planning to open a factory to burn the tires through a process called pyrolysis.
Pyrolysis produces a type of oil that can be sold for use in industrial furnaces such as cement factories, and an ash known as carbon black that can be used in a variety of industries.
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